Meet Minal – The heart and soul of Prashad!
Friday, 30th January, 2015
Many of you will know our front of house team, Imran, Bobby and all the waiting staff love to meet and greet our customers, getting to know them and making sure their Prashad experience is the best it can be. 
But there is one very important person at Prashad that not all of our customers get to meet and that’s our Head Chef, Minal Patel.
Minal is all about the ‘cooking with love’ ethos, established by our founder and Minal’s mum-in-law, Kaushy, and to say she’s a perfectionist about the dishes that leave her kitchen is an understatement!
Since she’s often so busy and focused in the kitchen, we thought we would put the spotlight on Minal this week to give you an insight into what drives our wonderful and talented head chef.
Where does your passion for cooking come from?
I have an inherent need to feed! From a very young age I would play with my little friends and pretend we were running a hotel, I was ALWAYS the head chef of course! My ambition to get a Michelin Star for Prashad is what drives my cooking and I’m always looking for new recipes, ideas and inspiration to bring back to the restaurant.
Describe one of your favourite recipes and why you love it so much
Anyone that knows me, knows that I love rice! Any rice dish will always bring a smile to my face and one of my all-time favourites is Kaushy’s ‘king of rice dishes’ Batsai Kichdi. It’s a dish that’s been passed down through the generations in our family and can be enjoyed as a meal in itself. (Page 160, Cookbook 1)
Who are your foodie icons and how do they influence you?
I have a few foodie icons and they all inspire me in different ways. First off would have to be my mum, she’s always been my biggest supporter and has shared my burning ambition to be one of the UK’s leading lights within the vegetarian cuisine world.
I’ve always been influenced by Gordon Ramsay’s passion for food and his amazing drive. After meeting him, I can say that his surprisingly warm nature in the kitchen (a total opposite to his TV persona) is something I am most definitely inspired by.
I love how Atul Kochar pushes the boundaries of Indian cuisine and addresses the age old eating dynasty with a Michelin attitude, flavour combinations and a phenomenal vision. His openness and willingness to teach others was lucky enough to experience when working with his team at Benares Restaurant.
Since a very young age I have loved Sanjeev Kapoor’s recipes. He has been instrumental in evolving Indian cuisine and this is something we are trying emulate at Prashad. I love the idea of trying out new dishes and opening the eyes (and tastebuds) of our diners!
What have been your proudest Prashad moments to date?
My proudest moment to date has to be when Kaushy and I successfully made it through to the final of Ramsay’s Best Restaurant in 2010. The only thing that could possibly beat this for me is attaining my Michelin Star, it would be such an honour!